first_published_at,last_published_at,title,slug,latest_revision_created_at,charges,legal_orders,updates,categories,links,equipment_seized,equipment_broken,targeted_journalists,authors,date,exact_date_unknown,city,state,latitude,longitude,body,introduction,teaser,teaser_image,primary_video,image_caption,arrest_status,arresting_authority,release_date,detention_date,unnecessary_use_of_force,case_number,case_statuses,case_type,status_of_seized_equipment,is_search_warrant_obtained,actor,border_point,target_us_citizenship_status,denial_of_entry,stopped_previously,did_authorities_ask_for_device_access,did_authorities_ask_about_work,assailant,was_journalist_targeted,charged_under_espionage_act,subpoena_type,subpoena_statuses,name_of_business,third_party_business,legal_order_target,legal_order_type,legal_order_venue,status_of_prior_restraint,mistakenly_released_materials,type_of_denial,targeted_institutions,tags,target_nationality,workers_whose_communications_were_obtained,politicians_or_public_figures_involved 2018-06-29 17:55:14.259753+00:00,2024-02-29 19:57:04.153773+00:00,Editor killed in Capital Gazette newsroom shooting by man upset with newspaper coverage,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/man-upset-newspaper-coverage-shoots-and-kills-multiple-journalists-capital-gazette-newsroom/,2024-02-29 19:57:04.003934+00:00,,,"(2021-07-15 15:30:00+00:00) Maryland man found criminally responsible for deaths of five in newsroom shooting, (2019-10-28 16:30:00+00:00) The Maryland man accused of massacring five staff members at the Capital Gazette newsroom last year enters guilty plea, (2023-01-03 15:10:00+00:00) Survivors, families of slain journalists settle lawsuit against Capital Gazette’s parent company, (2021-09-28 11:09:00+00:00) Gunman who killed Capital Gazette journalists and staffer sentenced to multiple consecutive life sentences",Assault,"Five dead in 'targeted attack' at Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, police say (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-gazette-shooting-20180628-story.html) via Baltimore Sun, Sources identify suspect in Annapolis Capital shooting as Jarrod Ramos, who had long-running feud with paper (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ramos-search-20180628-story.html) via Baltimore Sun, Suspect in Maryland mass shooting had long-standing grievance with the newspaper that was attacked (http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-newspaper-shooting-20180628-story.html) via Los Angeles Times, Lawyer recalls Jarrod Ramos' 'simmering anger' while defending Capital Gazette from defamation suit (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-news-capital-gazette-jarrod-ramos-lawsuit-20180628-story.html) via Daily News, Annapolis newspaper shooting suspect harassed Virginian-Pilot editor for years (https://pilotonline.com/news/local/crime/article_56a204e6-7b39-11e8-8586-c75874de25c7.html) via Virginian-Pilot, Maryland Court of Special Appeals opinion in defamation suit (http://170.99.108.1/appellate/unreportedopinions/2015/2281s13.pdf#page=7), 'We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow': Capital Gazette journalists report on shooting in their own newsroom (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-covering-shooting-20180628-story.html) via Baltimore Sun, Capital Gazette shooting victim Rob Hiaasen: A joyful stylist, a generous mentor (http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/annapolis/bs-md-rob-hiaasen-20180628-story.html) via Capital Gazette, Capital Gazette shooting victim Gerald Fischman: Clever and quirky voice of a community newspaper (http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/annapolis/bs-md-gerald-fischman-20180628-story.html) via Capital Gazette, Capital Gazette shooting victim John McNamara: Sports reporting was his dream job (http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/annapolis/bs-md-john-mcnamara-20180628-story.html) via Capital Gazette, Capital Gazette shooting victim Wendi Winters: A prolific writer who chronicled her community (http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/annapolis/bs-md-wendi-winters-20180628-story.html) via Capital Gazette, Capital Gazette shooting victim Rebecca Smith: Recent hire loved spending time with family (http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/annapolis/bs-md-ar-rebecca-smith-20180628-story.html) via Capital Gazette, The Capital's front page on June 29, 2018 (http://digitaledition.capitalgazette.com/html5/desktop/production/default.aspx?pubid=8b1fea6b-b045-4d93-97a0-18b26dbb2c3b)",,,Gerald Fischman (Capital Gazette),,2018-06-28,False,Annapolis,Maryland (MD),38.97859,-76.49184,"
On June 28, 2018, a man armed with a shotgun entered the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, and shot multiple journalists and other media workers, the Baltimore Sun reported. Five people, including four journalists, were killed in the attack, and two others were injured. Police later identified the suspected shooter as Jarrod Ramos, who had previously sued the Capital Gazette for defamation.
Editorial page editor Gerald Fischman, who had worked for the Capital Gazette for more than 25 years, was among those killed. Anne Arundel County police said that the other Capital Gazette employees killed in the attack were:
Two other Capital Gazette employees, whose names were not released, were injured in the attack. Find the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s documentation of all the journalists killed in the attack here.
The shooting occurred on June 28 inside the Capital Gazette newsroom, which is located on the ground floor of an office building in Annapolis, Maryland. The newsroom is home to reporters for both The Capital, a daily newspaper covering Annapolis, and The Maryland Gazette, a twice-weekly paper focused on state news. The shooting was the most deadly attack on journalists in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Phil Davis, a crime reporter for The Capital who was inside the newsroom during the shooting, told the Sun that he saw multiple colleagues shot. He said the scene inside the newsroom "was like a war zone." In a series of powerful tweets, he described what he witnessed.
A single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead.
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can't say much more and don't want to declare anyone dead, but it's bad.
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you're under your desk and then hear the gunman reload
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
Jarrod Ramos, the suspect in the shooting, had threatened and harassed Capital Gazette staffers for years, according to the Sun.
It began in July 2011, when Capital columnist Eric Hartley wrote about how Ramos was charged with harassment after stalking and threatening a high school classmate online. In response to Hartley's column, Ramos waged a one-man war against him and the paper, according to The Virginian-Pilot, where Hartley now works.
In July 2012, he filed a defamation lawsuit against Hartley, Capital Gazette Communications, and The Capital editor and publisher Tom Marquardt. Ramos represented himself in the suit, which was filed in Prince George's County, Maryland. At a March 2013 court hearing, a judge dismissed Ramos' complaint with prejudice and tried to explain to Ramos why the article was not defamatory:
You know, I understand exactly how you feel. I think people who are the subject of newspaper articles, whoever they may be, feel that there is a requirement that they be placed in the best light, or they have an opportunity to have the story reported to their satisfaction, or have the opportunity to have however much input they believe is appropriate.
But that's simply not true. There is nothing in those complaints that prove that anything that was published about you is, in fact, false. It all came from a public record. It was of the result of a criminal conviction. And it cannot give rise to a defamation suit.
Transcript of March 29, 2013 motion hearing
Ramos appealed the judge's decision. The Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's dismissal of the case and ordered Ramos to pay Capital Gazette's legal fees. In an unpublished opinion, one of the appellate court judges wrote that "a discussion of defamation law would be an exercise in futility, because the appellant [Ramos] fails to come close to alleging a case of defamation," and sharply criticized Ramos for bringing the lawsuit:
The appellant is pro se. A lawyer would almost certainly have told him not to proceed with this case. It reveals a fundamental failure to understand what defamation law is and, more particularly, what defamation law is not. The appellant is aggrieved because the newspaper story about his guilty plea assumed that he was guilty and that the guilty plea was, therefore, properly accepted. He is aggrieved because the story was sympathetic toward the harassment victim and was not equally understanding of the harassment perpetrator. The appellant wanted equal coverage of his side of the story. He wanted a chance to put the victim in a bad light, in order to justify and explain why he did what he did. That, however, is not the function of defamation law.
The appellant was charged with a criminal act. The appellant perpetrated a criminal act. The appellant plead guilty to having perpetrated a criminal act. The appellant was punished for his criminal act. He is not entitled to equal sympathy with his victim and may not blithely dismiss her as a "bipolar drunkard." He does not appear to have learned his lesson.
Unpublished appellate opinion
Ramos then tried to appeal to the state's highest court, the Maryland Court of Appeals, which declined to hear his case.
Ramos also harassed The Capital and its reporters outside of the courtroom.
According to the Sun, a Twitter account in Ramos' name (which has since been suspended), tweeted threats against The Capital. The account, which has since been suspended, included photographs of Hartley and Marquardt, and alluded to the mass shooting of journalists.
Marquardt, who served as The Capital's editor and publisher until 2012, told the Sun that he had been concerned about Ramos' obsessive hatred of the paper and whether it could escalate into violence.
"I was seriously concerned he would threaten us with physical violence,” he told the Sun. “I even told my wife, 'We have to be concerned. This guy could really hurt us.' ... I remember telling our attorneys, 'This is a guy who is going to come in and shoot us.'"
Marquardt told the Los Angeles Times that when he notified the Anne Arundel County police about Ramos' harassment back in 2013, the police said they could not arrest him for his behavior toward the newspaper. Marquardt said that the paper considered getting a restraining order against Ramos but worried about how Ramos would react.
"The theory back then was, 'Let’s not infuriate him more than I have to.… The more you agitate this guy, the worse it’s gonna get,'" he told the Los Angeles Times.
William Shirley, an attorney who helped defend Capital Gazette against Ramos' defamation suit, told the New York Daily News that Ramos threatened during a court hearing to assault Capital journalists.
"I remember at one point he was talking in a motion and somehow worked in how he wanted to smash Hartley’s face into the concrete," Shirley said. "We were concerned at the time. He was not stable."
On June 29, the day after the shooting, Ramos was charged with five counts of first-degree murder.
In the aftermath of the attack, Capital Gazette journalists worked with colleagues at the Sun to ensure that the next day's paper would still be published.
Yes, we’re putting out a damn paper tomorrow. https://t.co/ScNvIK1A4R
— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018
The June 29 edition of The Capital includes a front-page story about the shooting, bylined by 10 Capital reporters, and obituaries for all five of the people killed in the shooting. The opinion page of the paper is empty, except for a single message: "Today, we are speechless ... Tomorrow this page will return to its steady purpose of offering our readers informed opinion about the world around them, that they might be better citizens."
Anne Arundel county executive Steve Schuh holds a copy of The Capital newspaper as he is interviewed the day after a gunman killed five people and injured several others at the newspaper's offices in Annapolis, Maryland.
",None,None,None,None,False,C-02-CV-21-000820,"['ONGOING', 'SETTLED']",Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"killed, shot / shot at",,, 2021-10-21 20:45:58.827623+00:00,2024-02-29 19:57:24.356472+00:00,Sports reporter killed in Capital Gazette newsroom shooting by man upset with newspaper coverage,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sports-reporter-killed-in-capital-gazette-newsroom-shooting-by-man-upset-with-newspaper-coverage/,2024-02-29 19:57:24.207850+00:00,,,"(2021-07-15 00:00:00+00:00) Maryland man found criminally responsible for deaths of five in newsroom shooting, (2023-01-03 15:12:00+00:00) Survivors, families of slain journalists settle lawsuit against Capital Gazette’s parent company, (2021-09-28 00:00:00+00:00) Gunman who killed Capital Gazette journalists and staffer sentenced to multiple consecutive life sentences, (2019-10-28 00:00:00+00:00) The Maryland man accused of massacring five staff members at the Capital Gazette newsroom last year enters guilty plea",Assault,,,,John McNamara (Capital Gazette),,2018-06-28,False,Annapolis,Maryland (MD),38.97859,-76.49184,"On June 28, 2018, a man armed with a shotgun entered the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, and shot multiple journalists and other media workers, the Baltimore Sun reported. Five people, including four journalists, were killed in the attack, and two others were injured. Police later identified the suspected shooter as Jarrod Ramos, who had previously sued the Capital Gazette for defamation.
Community news and sports reporter John McNamara, who had worked for the Capital Gazette for 24 years, was among those killed. Anne Arundel County police said that other Capital Gazette employees killed in the attack were:
Two other Capital Gazette employees, whose names were not released, were injured in the attack. Find the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s documentation of all the journalists killed in the attack here.
The shooting occurred on June 28 inside the Capital Gazette newsroom, which is located on the ground floor of an office building in Annapolis, Maryland. The newsroom is home to reporters for both The Capital, a daily newspaper covering Annapolis, and The Maryland Gazette, a twice-weekly paper focused on state news. The shooting was the most deadly attack on journalists in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Phil Davis, a crime reporter for The Capital who was inside the newsroom during the shooting, told the Sun that he saw multiple colleagues shot. He said the scene inside the newsroom "was like a war zone." In a series of powerful tweets, he described what he witnessed.
A single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead.
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can't say much more and don't want to declare anyone dead, but it's bad.
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you're under your desk and then hear the gunman reload
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
Jarrod Ramos, the suspect in the shooting, had threatened and harassed Capital Gazette staffers for years, according to the Sun.
It began in July 2011, when Capital columnist Eric Hartley wrote about how Ramos was charged with harassment after stalking and threatening a high school classmate online. In response to Hartley's column, Ramos waged a one-man war against him and the paper, according to The Virginian-Pilot, where Hartley now works.
In July 2012, he filed a defamation lawsuit against Hartley, Capital Gazette Communications, and The Capital editor and publisher Tom Marquardt. Ramos represented himself in the suit, which was filed in Prince George's County, Maryland. At a March 2013 court hearing, a judge dismissed Ramos' complaint with prejudice and tried to explain to Ramos why the article was not defamatory:
You know, I understand exactly how you feel. I think people who are the subject of newspaper articles, whoever they may be, feel that there is a requirement that they be placed in the best light, or they have an opportunity to have the story reported to their satisfaction, or have the opportunity to have however much input they believe is appropriate.
But that's simply not true. There is nothing in those complaints that prove that anything that was published about you is, in fact, false. It all came from a public record. It was of the result of a criminal conviction. And it cannot give rise to a defamation suit.
Transcript of March 29, 2013 motion hearing
Ramos appealed the judge's decision. The Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's dismissal of the case and ordered Ramos to pay Capital Gazette's legal fees. In an unpublished opinion, one of the appellate court judges wrote that "a discussion of defamation law would be an exercise in futility, because the appellant [Ramos] fails to come close to alleging a case of defamation," and sharply criticized Ramos for bringing the lawsuit:
The appellant is pro se. A lawyer would almost certainly have told him not to proceed with this case. It reveals a fundamental failure to understand what defamation law is and, more particularly, what defamation law is not. The appellant is aggrieved because the newspaper story about his guilty plea assumed that he was guilty and that the guilty plea was, therefore, properly accepted. He is aggrieved because the story was sympathetic toward the harassment victim and was not equally understanding of the harassment perpetrator. The appellant wanted equal coverage of his side of the story. He wanted a chance to put the victim in a bad light, in order to justify and explain why he did what he did. That, however, is not the function of defamation law.
The appellant was charged with a criminal act. The appellant perpetrated a criminal act. The appellant plead guilty to having perpetrated a criminal act. The appellant was punished for his criminal act. He is not entitled to equal sympathy with his victim and may not blithely dismiss her as a "bipolar drunkard." He does not appear to have learned his lesson.
Unpublished appellate opinion
Ramos then tried to appeal to the state's highest court, the Maryland Court of Appeals, which declined to hear his case.
Ramos also harassed The Capital and its reporters outside of the courtroom.
According to the Sun, a Twitter account in Ramos' name tweeted threats against The Capital. The account, which has since been suspended, included photographs of Hartley and Marquardt, and alluded to the mass shooting of journalists.
Marquardt, who served as The Capital's editor and publisher until 2012, told the Sun that he had been concerned about Ramos' obsessive hatred of the paper and whether it could escalate into violence.
"I was seriously concerned he would threaten us with physical violence,” he told the Sun. “I even told my wife, 'We have to be concerned. This guy could really hurt us.' … I remember telling our attorneys, 'This is a guy who is going to come in and shoot us.'"
Marquardt told the Los Angeles Times that when he notified the Anne Arundel County police about Ramos' harassment back in 2013, the police said they could not arrest him for his behavior toward the newspaper. Marquardt said that the paper considered getting a restraining order against Ramos but worried about how Ramos would react.
"The theory back then was, 'Let’s not infuriate him more than I have to.… The more you agitate this guy, the worse it’s gonna get,'" he told the Los Angeles Times.
William Shirley, an attorney who helped defend Capital Gazette against Ramos' defamation suit, told the New York Daily News that Ramos threatened during a court hearing to assault Capital journalists.
"I remember at one point he was talking in a motion and somehow worked in how he wanted to smash Hartley’s face into the concrete," Shirley said. "We were concerned at the time. He was not stable."
On June 29, the day after the shooting, Ramos was charged with five counts of first-degree murder.
In the aftermath of the attack, Capital Gazette journalists worked with colleagues at the Sun to ensure that the next day's paper would still be published.
Yes, we’re putting out a damn paper tomorrow. https://t.co/ScNvIK1A4R
— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018
The June 29 edition of The Capital includes a front-page story about the shooting, bylined by 10 Capital reporters, and obituaries for all five of the people killed in the shooting. The opinion page of the paper is empty, except for a single message: "Today, we are speechless … Tomorrow this page will return to its steady purpose of offering our readers informed opinions about the world around them, that they might be better citizens."
Anne Arundel county executive Steve Schuh holds a copy of The Capital newspaper during an interview the day after a gunman killed five people and injured several others at the newspaper's offices in Annapolis, Maryland.
",None,None,None,None,False,C-02-CV-21-000820,"['ONGOING', 'SETTLED']",Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"killed, shot / shot at",,, 2021-10-21 20:54:52.734284+00:00,2024-02-29 19:57:42.858351+00:00,Columnist killed in Capital Gazette newsroom shooting by man upset with newspaper coverage,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/columnist-killed-in-capital-gazette-newsroom-shooting-by-man-upset-with-newspaper-coverage/,2024-02-29 19:57:42.731547+00:00,,,"(2021-07-15 00:00:00+00:00) Maryland man found criminally responsible for deaths of five in newsroom shooting, (2023-01-03 15:14:00+00:00) Survivors, families of slain journalists settle lawsuit against Capital Gazette’s parent company, (2021-09-28 00:00:00+00:00) Gunman who killed Capital Gazette journalists and staffer sentenced to multiple consecutive life sentences, (2019-10-28 00:00:00+00:00) The Maryland man accused of massacring five staff members at the Capital Gazette newsroom last year enters guilty plea",Assault,,,,Rob Hiaasen (Capital Gazette),,2018-06-28,False,Annapolis,Maryland (MD),38.97859,-76.49184,"On June 28, 2018, a man armed with a shotgun entered the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, and shot multiple journalists and other media workers, the Baltimore Sun reported. Five people, including four journalists, were killed in the attack, and two others were injured. Police later identified the suspected shooter as Jarrod Ramos, who had previously sued the Capital Gazette for defamation.
Columnist and assistant editor Rob Hiaasen, who had worked for the Capital Gazette since 2010, was among those killed. Anne Arundel County police said that other Capital Gazette employees killed in the attack were:
Two other Capital Gazette employees, whose names were not released, were injured in the attack. Find the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s documentation of all the journalists killed in the attack here.
The shooting occurred on June 28 inside the Capital Gazette newsroom, which is located on the ground floor of an office building in Annapolis, Maryland. The newsroom is home to reporters for both The Capital, a daily newspaper covering Annapolis, and The Maryland Gazette, a twice-weekly paper focused on state news. The shooting was the most deadly attack on journalists in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Phil Davis, a crime reporter for The Capital who was inside the newsroom during the shooting, told the Sun that he saw multiple colleagues shot. He said the scene inside the newsroom "was like a war zone." In a series of powerful tweets, he described what he witnessed.
A single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead.
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can't say much more and don't want to declare anyone dead, but it's bad.
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you're under your desk and then hear the gunman reload
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
Jarrod Ramos, the suspect in the shooting, had threatened and harassed Capital Gazette staffers for years, according to the Sun.
It began in July 2011, when Capital columnist Eric Hartley wrote about how Ramos was charged with harassment after stalking and threatening a high school classmate online. In response to Hartley's column, Ramos waged a one-man war against him and the paper, according to The Virginian-Pilot, where Hartley now works.
In July 2012, he filed a defamation lawsuit against Hartley, Capital Gazette Communications, and The Capital editor and publisher Tom Marquardt. Ramos represented himself in the suit, which was filed in Prince George's County, Maryland. At a March 2013 court hearing, a judge dismissed Ramos' complaint with prejudice and tried to explain to Ramos why the article was not defamatory:
You know, I understand exactly how you feel. I think people who are the subject of newspaper articles, whoever they may be, feel that there is a requirement that they be placed in the best light, or they have an opportunity to have the story reported to their satisfaction, or have the opportunity to have however much input they believe is appropriate.
But that's simply not true. There is nothing in those complaints that prove that anything that was published about you is, in fact, false. It all came from a public record. It was of the result of a criminal conviction. And it cannot give rise to a defamation suit.
Transcript of March 29, 2013 motion hearing
Ramos appealed the judge's decision. The Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's dismissal of the case and ordered Ramos to pay Capital Gazette's legal fees. In an unpublished opinion, one of the appellate court judges wrote that "a discussion of defamation law would be an exercise in futility, because the appellant [Ramos] fails to come close to alleging a case of defamation," and sharply criticized Ramos for bringing the lawsuit:
The appellant is pro se. A lawyer would almost certainly have told him not to proceed with this case. It reveals a fundamental failure to understand what defamation law is and, more particularly, what defamation law is not. The appellant is aggrieved because the newspaper story about his guilty plea assumed that he was guilty and that the guilty plea was, therefore, properly accepted. He is aggrieved because the story was sympathetic toward the harassment victim and was not equally understanding of the harassment perpetrator. The appellant wanted equal coverage of his side of the story. He wanted a chance to put the victim in a bad light, in order to justify and explain why he did what he did. That, however, is not the function of defamation law.
The appellant was charged with a criminal act. The appellant perpetrated a criminal act. The appellant plead guilty to having perpetrated a criminal act. The appellant was punished for his criminal act. He is not entitled to equal sympathy with his victim and may not blithely dismiss her as a "bipolar drunkard." He does not appear to have learned his lesson.
Unpublished appellate opinion
Ramos then tried to appeal to the state's highest court, the Maryland Court of Appeals, which declined to hear his case.
Ramos also harassed The Capital and its reporters outside of the courtroom.
According to the Sun, a Twitter account in Ramos' name tweeted threats against The Capital. The account, which has since been suspended, included photographs of Hartley and Marquardt, and alluded to the mass shooting of journalists.
Marquardt, who served as The Capital's editor and publisher until 2012, told the Sun that he had been concerned about Ramos' obsessive hatred of the paper and whether it could escalate into violence.
"I was seriously concerned he would threaten us with physical violence,” he told the Sun. “I even told my wife, 'We have to be concerned. This guy could really hurt us.' … I remember telling our attorneys, 'This is a guy who is going to come in and shoot us.'"
Marquardt told the Los Angeles Times that when he notified the Anne Arundel County police about Ramos' harassment back in 2013, the police said they could not arrest him for his behavior toward the newspaper. Marquardt said that the paper considered getting a restraining order against Ramos but worried about how Ramos would react.
"The theory back then was, 'Let’s not infuriate him more than I have to.… The more you agitate this guy, the worse it’s gonna get,'" he told the Los Angeles Times.
William Shirley, an attorney who helped defend Capital Gazette against Ramos' defamation suit, told the New York Daily News that Ramos threatened during a court hearing to assault Capital journalists.
"I remember at one point he was talking in a motion and somehow worked in how he wanted to smash Hartley’s face into the concrete," Shirley said. "We were concerned at the time. He was not stable."
On June 29, the day after the shooting, Ramos was charged with five counts of first-degree murder.
In the aftermath of the attack, Capital Gazette journalists worked with colleagues at the Sun to ensure that the next day's paper would still be published.
Yes, we’re putting out a damn paper tomorrow. https://t.co/ScNvIK1A4R
— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018
The June 29 edition of The Capital includes a front-page story about the shooting, bylined by 10 Capital reporters, and obituaries for all five of the people killed in the shooting. The opinion page of the paper is empty, except for a single message: "Today, we are speechless … Tomorrow this page will return to its steady purpose of offering our readers informed opinions about the world around them, that they might be better citizens."
Anne Arundel county executive Steve Schuh holds a copy of The Capital newspaper during an interview the day after a gunman killed five people and injured several others at the newspaper's offices in Annapolis, Maryland.
",None,None,None,None,False,C-02-CV-21-000820,"['ONGOING', 'SETTLED']",Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"killed, shot / shot at",,, 2021-10-21 21:01:43.524055+00:00,2024-02-29 19:58:11.015043+00:00,Community news reporter killed in Capital Gazette newsroom shooting by man upset with newspaper coverage,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/community-news-reporter-killed-in-capital-gazette-newsroom-shooting-by-man-upset-with-newspaper-coverage/,2024-02-29 19:58:10.856961+00:00,,,"(2019-10-28 00:00:00+00:00) The Maryland man accused of massacring five staff members at the Capital Gazette newsroom last year enters guilty plea, (2021-07-15 00:00:00+00:00) Maryland man found criminally responsible for deaths of five in newsroom shooting, (2023-01-03 15:14:00+00:00) Survivors, families of slain journalists settle lawsuit against Capital Gazette’s parent company, (2021-09-28 00:00:00+00:00) Gunman who killed Capital Gazette journalists and staffer sentenced to multiple consecutive life sentences",Assault,,,,Wendi Winters (Capital Gazette),,2018-06-28,False,Annapolis,Maryland (MD),38.97859,-76.49184,"On June 28, 2018, a man armed with a shotgun entered the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, and shot multiple journalists and other media workers, the Baltimore Sun reported. Five people, including four journalists, were killed in the attack, and two others were injured. Police later identified the suspected shooter as Jarrod Ramos, who had previously sued the Capital Gazette for defamation.
Community news reporter and columnist Wendi Winters, who had written for the Capital Gazette for 20 years, was among those killed. Anne Arundel County police said that other Capital Gazette employees killed in the attack were:
Two other Capital Gazette employees, whose names were not released, were injured in the attack. Find the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s documentation of all the journalists killed in the attack here.
The shooting occurred on June 28 inside the Capital Gazette newsroom, which is located on the ground floor of an office building in Annapolis, Maryland. The newsroom is home to reporters for both The Capital, a daily newspaper covering Annapolis, and The Maryland Gazette, a twice-weekly paper focused on state news. The shooting was the most deadly attack on journalists in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Phil Davis, a crime reporter for The Capital who was inside the newsroom during the shooting, told the Sun that he saw multiple colleagues shot. He said the scene inside the newsroom "was like a war zone." In a series of powerful tweets, he described what he witnessed.
A single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead.
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can't say much more and don't want to declare anyone dead, but it's bad.
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you're under your desk and then hear the gunman reload
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
Jarrod Ramos, the suspect in the shooting, had threatened and harassed Capital Gazette staffers for years, according to the Sun.
It began in July 2011, when Capital columnist Eric Hartley wrote about how Ramos was charged with harassment after stalking and threatening a high school classmate online. In response to Hartley's column, Ramos waged a one-man war against him and the paper, according to The Virginian-Pilot, where Hartley now works.
In July 2012, he filed a defamation lawsuit against Hartley, Capital Gazette Communications, and The Capital editor and publisher Tom Marquardt. Ramos represented himself in the suit, which was filed in Prince George's County, Maryland. At a March 2013 court hearing, a judge dismissed Ramos' complaint with prejudice and tried to explain to Ramos why the article was not defamatory:
You know, I understand exactly how you feel. I think people who are the subject of newspaper articles, whoever they may be, feel that there is a requirement that they be placed in the best light, or they have an opportunity to have the story reported to their satisfaction, or have the opportunity to have however much input they believe is appropriate.
But that's simply not true. There is nothing in those complaints that prove that anything that was published about you is, in fact, false. It all came from a public record. It was of the result of a criminal conviction. And it cannot give rise to a defamation suit.
Transcript of March 29, 2013 motion hearing
Ramos appealed the judge's decision. The Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's dismissal of the case and ordered Ramos to pay Capital Gazette's legal fees. In an unpublished opinion, one of the appellate court judges wrote that "a discussion of defamation law would be an exercise in futility, because the appellant [Ramos] fails to come close to alleging a case of defamation," and sharply criticized Ramos for bringing the lawsuit:
The appellant is pro se. A lawyer would almost certainly have told him not to proceed with this case. It reveals a fundamental failure to understand what defamation law is and, more particularly, what defamation law is not. The appellant is aggrieved because the newspaper story about his guilty plea assumed that he was guilty and that the guilty plea was, therefore, properly accepted. He is aggrieved because the story was sympathetic toward the harassment victim and was not equally understanding of the harassment perpetrator. The appellant wanted equal coverage of his side of the story. He wanted a chance to put the victim in a bad light, in order to justify and explain why he did what he did. That, however, is not the function of defamation law.
The appellant was charged with a criminal act. The appellant perpetrated a criminal act. The appellant plead guilty to having perpetrated a criminal act. The appellant was punished for his criminal act. He is not entitled to equal sympathy with his victim and may not blithely dismiss her as a "bipolar drunkard." He does not appear to have learned his lesson.
Unpublished appellate opinion
Ramos then tried to appeal to the state's highest court, the Maryland Court of Appeals, which declined to hear his case.
Ramos also harassed The Capital and its reporters outside of the courtroom.
According to the Sun, a Twitter account in Ramos' name tweeted threats against The Capital. The account, which has since been suspended, included photographs of Hartley and Marquardt, and alluded to the mass shooting of journalists.
Marquardt, who served as The Capital's editor and publisher until 2012, told the Sun that he had been concerned about Ramos' obsessive hatred of the paper and whether it could escalate into violence.
"I was seriously concerned he would threaten us with physical violence,” he told the Sun. “I even told my wife, 'We have to be concerned. This guy could really hurt us.' … I remember telling our attorneys, 'This is a guy who is going to come in and shoot us.'"
Marquardt told the Los Angeles Times that when he notified the Anne Arundel County police about Ramos' harassment back in 2013, the police said they could not arrest him for his behavior toward the newspaper. Marquardt said that the paper considered getting a restraining order against Ramos but worried about how Ramos would react.
"The theory back then was, 'Let’s not infuriate him more than I have to.… The more you agitate this guy, the worse it’s gonna get,'" he told the Los Angeles Times.
William Shirley, an attorney who helped defend Capital Gazette against Ramos' defamation suit, told the New York Daily News that Ramos threatened during a court hearing to assault Capital journalists.
"I remember at one point he was talking in a motion and somehow worked in how he wanted to smash Hartley’s face into the concrete," Shirley said. "We were concerned at the time. He was not stable."
On June 29, the day after the shooting, Ramos was charged with five counts of first-degree murder.
In the aftermath of the attack, Capital Gazette journalists worked with colleagues at the Sun to ensure that the next day's paper would still be published.
Yes, we’re putting out a damn paper tomorrow. https://t.co/ScNvIK1A4R
— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) June 29, 2018
The June 29 edition of The Capital includes a front-page story about the shooting, bylined by 10 Capital reporters, and obituaries for all five of the people killed in the shooting. The opinion page of the paper is empty, except for a single message: "Today, we are speechless … Tomorrow this page will return to its steady purpose of offering our readers informed opinions about the world around them, that they might be better citizens."
Anne Arundel county executive Steve Schuh holds a copy of The Capital newspaper during an interview the day after a gunman killed five people and injured several others at the newspaper's offices in Annapolis, Maryland.
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Photojournalist Paul W. Gillespie was working in the Capital Gazette offices on June 28, 2018, when a man armed with a shotgun entered the newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, shortly after 2:30 p.m. and shot multiple newspaper employees.
Gillespie, who did not respond to requests for comment in early 2023, said at the time he had just finished editing photos from an assignment when he heard gunshots. He told The Baltimore Sun he heard a crash as the newsroom’s glass doors shattered. He quickly curled up under a coworker’s desk to hide.
“I dove under that desk as fast as I could, and by the grace of God, he didn’t look over there,” he said. “I was curled up, trying not to breathe, trying not to make a sound, and he shot people all around me.”
The gunman walked past Gillespie’s hiding place and continued shooting. When there was a lull in the shots, Gillespie said he stood and ran for the front door; he jumped over the body of a colleague and through the broken glass as the gunman shot in his direction.
Gillespie then ran to a nearby bank where he told people to call 911.
Gillespie later testified that he felt the gunman’s shot pass by him. "I heard another gunshot go off, and I felt a breeze go past my head.”
The gunman called police at 2:38 p.m., saying that he was done shooting and that he would surrender, according to Maryland Matters. Officers entered the Capital Gazette offices at 2:44 p.m.
Of the 11 Capital Gazette employees in the newsroom during the shooting, five were killed and two injured. All journalists killed in or present for the attack are documented in the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s Assault category.
The ground-floor newsroom of the Capital Gazette was home to reporters for both The Capital, a daily newspaper covering Annapolis, and The Maryland Gazette, a twice-weekly paper focused on state news. The shooting was the deadliest single attack on journalists in United States history, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The gunman was convicted on 23 counts in July 2021, the Capital Gazette reported. He was sentenced on Sept. 28, 2021, to five life sentences without the possibility of parole, a life sentence for the attempted murder of Gillespie and an additional 345 years in prison, all to be served consecutively.
In announcing the sentence, Judge Michael Wachs said the defendant was getting what he deserved. “To say the defendant showed a callous and cruel disregard for the sanctity of human life is simply an understatement,” Wachs said.
Gillespie told reporters outside the courthouse that he was happy the trial was over, but that he doesn’t think he’ll ever have closure.
“I lost five of my family members,” he said. “I was almost killed myself. It’s something that haunts me every day.”
In June 2021, the families of victims and five of the six survivors filed lawsuits against the Sun and Tribune Publishing, The Associated Press reported. (The Capital was purchased by Baltimore Sun Media, a subsidiary of Tribune Publishing, in 2014.)
The suits — one for wrongful death, the other for negligence — both argued that the shooting was preventable. The negligence lawsuit said that if “reasonable steps” had been taken, the gunman “would have been detected and stopped prior to entering The Capital’s newsroom, and he may never have attempted the assault at all.” The cases were consolidated in early 2022, according to the AP.
The parties reached a settlement agreement and filed a joint motion for dismissal on Jan. 3, 2023. An attorney for some of the plaintiffs told the AP that the details of the settlement are confidential. Gillespie did not respond to requests for comment at the time.
Capital Gazette photographer Paul Gillespie, center left in hat, stands with his wife, colleagues and families of victims during a vigil held on June 29, 2018, the day after a gunman killed five people inside the newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland.
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Crime reporter Phil Davis was working in the Capital Gazette offices on June 28, 2018, when a man armed with a shotgun entered the newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, and shot multiple newspaper employees.
Davis wrote on Twitter just over an hour after the shooting that a single gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on employees while he and others hid under their desks.
Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can't say much more and don't want to declare anyone dead, but it's bad.
— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018
“There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload,” Davis wrote.
Davis testified that he texted a police sergeant — one of his sources — asking for help and that there was a shooting in the newsroom, according to The Washington Post.
He told The Baltimore Sun that the newsroom was like a war zone.
“I’m a police reporter. I write about this stuff — not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death — all the time,” Davis said. “But as much as I’m going to try to articulate how traumatizing it is to be hiding under your desk, you don’t know until you’re there and you feel helpless.”
The gunman called police at 2:38 p.m., saying that he was done shooting and that he would surrender, according to Maryland Matters. Officers entered the Capital Gazette offices at 2:44 p.m.
Of the 11 Capital Gazette employees in the newsroom during the shooting, five were killed and two injured. All journalists killed in or present for the attack are documented in the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s Assault category.
The ground-floor newsroom of the Capital Gazette was home to reporters for both The Capital, a daily newspaper covering Annapolis, and The Maryland Gazette, a twice-weekly paper focused on state news. The shooting was the deadliest single attack on journalists in United States history, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The gunman was convicted on 23 counts in July 2021, the Capital Gazette reported. He was sentenced on Sept. 28, 2021, to six life sentences — five without the possibility of parole — plus 345 years in prison, all to be served consecutively.
In announcing the sentence, Judge Michael Wachs said the defendant was getting what he deserved. “To say the defendant showed a callous and cruel disregard for the sanctity of human life is simply an understatement,” Wachs said.
In June 2021, the families of victims and five of the six survivors filed lawsuits against the Sun and Tribune Publishing, The Associated Press reported. (The Capital was purchased by Baltimore Sun Media, a subsidiary of Tribune Publishing, in 2014.)
The suits — one for wrongful death, the other for negligence — both argued that the shooting was preventable. The negligence lawsuit said that if “reasonable steps” had been taken, the gunman “would have been detected and stopped prior to entering The Capital’s newsroom, and he may never have attempted the assault at all.” The cases were consolidated in early 2022, according to the AP.
The parties reached a settlement agreement and filed a joint motion for dismissal on Jan. 3, 2023. Davis confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the details of the settlement are confidential. He said he discourages the idea that the end of the lawsuit equals closure.
“Everyone wants closure, because closure is what makes everything easier to understand. It gives people a way to endnote things,” Davis said. “I hope people realize that it doesn’t create a new chapter for anyone.”
Staffers of the Capital Gazette attend a vigil on June 29, 2018, the day after five people were killed at the newspaper’s offices in Annapolis, Maryland. Phil Davis, fifth from left in gray, testified he hid under his desk to survive the shooting.
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Reporter Rachael Pacella was working in the Capital Gazette offices on June 28, 2018, when a man armed with a shotgun entered the newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, and shot multiple newspaper employees.
The shooter entered the offices just after 2:30 p.m., shooting through the glass doors leading into the newsroom. Pacella wrote in a blog post after the incident that she ran to escape through the back door but hit her head against it when she discovered that it had been barricaded, causing a gash between her eyebrows. She then hid between two filing cabinets with a clipboard cutting into her leg, according to The Washington Post.
The gunman called police at 2:38 p.m., saying that he was done shooting and that he would surrender, according to Maryland Matters. Officers entered the Capital Gazette offices at 2:44 p.m.
“After a little bit, I heard some yelling, and it was clear that it was police,” Pacella later testified. “And eventually an officer came into my field of view. It said ‘police’ on the back, and they told us to get out.”
Pacella said she had left her shoes at her desk and had to be carried out by an officer to avoid cutting herself on glass from the shattered front door. The Baltimore Sun reported that she was taken to the hospital where received three stitches and was told she had a concussion.
In her blog, Pacella wrote that during the five hours she was in the hospital, she asked for paper and a pen and started reporting.
“I had no information, so I gathered my own. The name of the doctor treating me, the first name and last initial of the officer in the room. My immediate recollections post-shooting. ‘Dried blood on right arm looked like veins outside of my skin.’ ‘The office smelled like gunpowder,’” Pacella wrote. “I am proud of that first notebook. I am proud of my instinct to write down and record everything that was going on around me.”
Of the 11 Capital Gazette employees in the newsroom during the shooting, five were killed and two injured. All journalists killed in or present for the attack are documented in the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s Assault category.
The ground-floor newsroom of the Capital Gazette was home to reporters for both The Capital, a daily newspaper covering Annapolis, and The Maryland Gazette, a twice-weekly paper focused on state news. The shooting was the deadliest single attack on journalists in United States history, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The gunman was convicted on 23 counts in July 2021, the Capital Gazette reported. He was sentenced on Sept. 28, 2021, to six life sentences — five without the possibility of parole — plus 345 years in prison, all to be served consecutively.
In announcing the sentence, Judge Michael Wachs said the defendant was getting what he deserved. “To say the defendant showed a callous and cruel disregard for the sanctity of human life is simply an understatement,” Wachs said.
Pacella told Maryland Matters that she was relieved when the verdict was handed down. “I’m happy because I feel like today brought some closure,” she said.
In June 2021, the families of victims and five of the six survivors filed lawsuits against the Sun and Tribune Publishing, The Associated Press reported. (The Capital was purchased by Baltimore Sun Media, a subsidiary of Tribune Publishing, in 2014.)
The suits — one for wrongful death, the other for negligence — both argued that the shooting was preventable. The negligence lawsuit said that if “reasonable steps” had been taken, the gunman “would have been detected and stopped prior to entering The Capital’s newsroom, and he may never have attempted the assault at all.” The cases were consolidated in early 2022, according to the AP.
The parties reached a settlement agreement and filed a joint motion for dismissal on Jan. 3, 2023. Pacella confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the details of the settlement are confidential.
Staffers of the Capital Gazette attend a vigil on June 29, 2018, the day after five people were killed at the newspaper’s offices in Annapolis, Maryland. Survivor Rachael Pacella, on the far right in green, was injured when she hid during the shooting.
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Reporter Selene San Felice was working in the Capital Gazette offices on June 28, 2018, when a man armed with a shotgun entered the newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, and shot multiple newspaper employees.
San Felice, who declined to comment when contacted in early 2023, testified in 2021 that when the shooting first began, she thought a vase had broken. She then realized the glass doors to the office had been shattered by a shotgun blast. The shooter entered the offices just after 2:30 p.m.
She and sports intern Anthony Messenger ran toward the back exit of the office, but found that the door had been barricaded from the outside. The pair then hid under a desk in the back corner of the office, Messenger told TODAY in an interview a day after the attack.
Messenger called 911 and texted a friend before passing the phone to San Felice so she could reach out to her family.
San Felice testified that she texted her family that there was an active shooter in the newsroom and that she loved them. She said she was careful to not tell them she was going to be OK.
San Felice also posted the building’s location on his Twitter account with a plea for help.
Active shooter 888 Bestgate please help us
— Anthony Messenger (@anthonydmess) June 28, 2018
The gunman called police at 2:38 p.m., saying that he was done shooting and that he would surrender, according to Maryland Matters. Officers entered the Capital Gazette offices at 2:44 p.m. Messenger said he and San Felice were able to identify themselves and leave the office.
Of the 11 Capital Gazette employees in the newsroom during the shooting, five were killed and two injured. All journalists killed in or present for the attack are documented in the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s Assault category.
The ground-floor newsroom of the Capital Gazette was home to reporters for both The Capital, a daily newspaper covering Annapolis, and The Maryland Gazette, a twice-weekly paper focused on state news. The shooting was the deadliest single attack on journalists in United States history, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
San Felice told the Tampa Bay Times in a 2019 interview that when editor Rick Hutzell asked if she wanted to work the day after the shooting, she never considered saying no. “If I didn’t go, the shooter would win,” she said.
The gunman was convicted on 23 counts in July 2021, the Capital Gazette reported. He was sentenced on Sept. 28, 2021, to six life sentences — five without the possibility of parole — plus 345 years in prison, all to be served consecutively.
In announcing the sentence, Judge Michael Wachs said the defendant was getting what he deserved. “To say the defendant showed a callous and cruel disregard for the sanctity of human life is simply an understatement,” Wachs said.
San Felice told reporters outside the courthouse that it was a relief to see authorities take Ramos away.
“It felt really good to be able to look the judge in the eye and also to be able to look the shooter in the eye," San Felice said. "It meant a lot to me to be able to tell him to his face that he failed.”
In June 2021, the families of victims and the five journalists who survived filed lawsuits against The Baltimore Sun and Tribune Publishing, The Associated Press reported. (The Capital was purchased by Baltimore Sun Media, a subsidiary of Tribune Publishing, in 2014.)
The suits — one for wrongful death, the other for negligence — both argued that the shooting was preventable. The negligence lawsuit said that if “reasonable steps” had been taken, the gunman “would have been detected and stopped prior to entering The Capital’s newsroom, and he may never have attempted the assault at all.” The cases were consolidated in early 2022, according to the AP.
The parties reached a settlement agreement and filed a joint motion for dismissal on Jan. 3, 2023. An attorney for some of the plaintiffs told the AP that the details of the settlement are confidential.
Staffers of the Capital Gazette attend a vigil on June 29, 2018, the day after five people were killed at the newspaper’s offices in Annapolis, Maryland. Survivor Selene San Felice, fourth from left in black, hid with a colleague during the shooting.
",None,None,None,None,False,C-02-CV-21-000820,['SETTLED'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,shot / shot at,,, 2023-02-15 20:02:41.134313+00:00,2024-02-29 19:59:33.678506+00:00,Sports intern hid from Capital Gazette newsroom gunman,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sports-intern-hid-from-capital-gazette-newsroom-gunman/,2024-02-29 19:59:33.590891+00:00,,,,Assault,,,,Anthony Messenger (Capital Gazette),,2018-06-28,False,Annapolis,Maryland (MD),38.97859,-76.49184,"Editor’s Note: In January 2023, families of victims and some of the survivors of the 2018 Capital Gazette newsroom shooting dismissed a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit after reaching a settlement agreement. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is updating its Assault category documentation to include the five journalists who were plaintiffs in the suit and present during the attack. Four journalists and one newsroom employee were killed.
Anthony Messenger was four weeks into his internship as a sports reporter for the Capital Gazette when a man armed with a shotgun entered the newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, on June 28, 2018, and shot multiple newspaper employees.
Messenger, who did not respond to requests for comment in early 2023, told TODAY the day after the shooting that when he heard the first pop just after 2:30 p.m. he thought it was fireworks.
“I turned and looked over my shoulder toward the front of the room, toward the entrance, and I saw some faces that looked concerned,” he said. “I saw that the glass doors that open into our office were blown out.”
When he heard a second pop, he said he grabbed his keys and ran toward the back exit of the office alongside reporter Selene San Felice. The door had been barricaded from the outside.
“I quickly recognized, oh, this is a malicious situation, he’s here to do harm to us,” Messenger said. “And we immediately ran and got under one of the desks in the far back corner of the office and we just huddled as close as we could to each other and tried to stay out of sight.”
Messenger told TODAY that he called 911 as soon as they got under the desk and texted a friend asking him to call as well.
“In that moment, I thought I was going to die, I thought we were going to die,” Messenger said. “The only solace in that moment was, ‘Here, Selene, you can have my phone: Text whoever you need to text, contact whoever you need to contact.’”
After reaching out to her family, San Felice tweeted the building’s location on Messenger’s account with a plea for help.
Active shooter 888 Bestgate please help us
— Anthony Messenger (@anthonydmess) June 28, 2018
The gunman called police at 2:38 p.m., saying that he was done shooting and that he would surrender, according to Maryland Matters. Officers entered the Capital Gazette offices at 2:44 p.m. Messenger said he and San Felice were able to identify themselves and leave the office.
Of the 11 Capital Gazette employees in the newsroom during the shooting, five were killed and two injured. All journalists killed in or present for the attack are documented in the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s Assault category.
The ground-floor newsroom of the Capital Gazette was home to reporters for both The Capital, a daily newspaper covering Annapolis, and The Maryland Gazette, a twice-weekly paper focused on state news. The shooting was the deadliest single attack on journalists in United States history, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The gunman was convicted on 23 counts in July 2021, the Capital Gazette reported. He was sentenced on Sept. 28, 2021, to six life sentences — five without the possibility of parole — plus 345 years in prison, all to be served consecutively.
In announcing the sentence, Judge Michael Wachs said the defendant was getting what he deserved. “To say the defendant showed a callous and cruel disregard for the sanctity of human life is simply an understatement,” Wachs said.
In June 2021, the families of victims and five of the six survivors filed lawsuits against the Sun and Tribune Publishing, The Associated Press reported. (The Capital was purchased by Baltimore Sun Media, a subsidiary of Tribune Publishing, in 2014.)
The suits — one for wrongful death, the other for negligence — both argued that the shooting was preventable. The negligence lawsuit said that if “reasonable steps” had been taken, the gunman “would have been detected and stopped prior to entering The Capital’s newsroom, and he may never have attempted the assault at all.” The cases were consolidated in early 2022, according to the AP.
The parties reached a settlement agreement and filed a joint motion for dismissal on Jan. 3, 2023. An attorney for some of the plaintiffs told the AP that the details of the settlement are confidential.
Staffers of the Capital Gazette attend a candlelight vigil on June 29, 2018, the day after five people were killed at the newspaper’s offices in Annapolis, Maryland.
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